Saturday, February 03, 2007

Redd will solve everything! Uh-huh

Someone on the Bucks should contact that dude who keeps posting religious comments on this site. They need someone to administer the last rites to this wasted season.

Last night the death march returned to the Bradley Center. And for the second time in less than a week, the sorrowful Bucks were blown out by the Miami Heat. In both games the Bucks made the Heat, a middle of the pack offensive team, look like the 1996 Chicago Bulls (i.e. the most efficient offensive team in NBA history). Their defensive performances in those two games ought to land someone in jail (and if anyone is busy typing out the arrest warrant, the perp's first name ends with a "y").

I don't think the Heat's offense could have been more proficient than it was in the third quarter last night if it were playing against air. It looked like the easiest 41 point quarter in NBA history. (By the way, does anyone know much the journeyman stiff Jason Capono had to fork over to the Bucks for making him look like Jerry West?).

The Bucks are so bad. Under my offensive/defensive efficiency differential (pts scored per 100 possessions vs pts allowed per 100 opponent possessions) Power Rankings, the Bucks have sunk to rock bottom in the NBA. Below Portland; below Charlotte; below Atlanta; way below even the Boston Celtics. Rock frickin' bottom. And though my ranking method may come up short in terms of judging a team's "on paper" potential, I think it is an enormously solid indication of a team's on-court performance. And strictly in terms of performance, the Bucks are now the worst team in the Association.

And yet all I keep hearing, over and over again, is this weak ass claim that Michael Redd's return will fix everything. Dream on, antlerheads. What fantasy world are you living in? Unless Redd is spending his time on the injured reserve list traveling in a time machine back to 1963 to undergo a full body transfer with the young Bill Russell, his return won't do anything to address the Bucks main problem: they couldn't defend a high school team.

Redd's injury has actually served a valuable purpose: it exposed the team's squishy soft underbelly. All season long the Bucks have been the worst defensive team in the Association in nearly every category, including the most important one in my opinion, defensive efficiency. Yet while Redd was healthy, they were able to cover it up. He allowed them to deny reality by outshooting their shortcomings. But like a crackhead who has to continuously get high just to remain functional, the Bucks had to collapse at some point.

2 Comments:

The trouble with an argument via analogy is that the analogy often is just wrong and thus drag down the argument.

Crack is an artificial stimulus leading to euphoria. Good shooting from the Bucks is not artificial, nor an unreasonable expectation, but based upon the previous years experience with those players. The Bucks in December shot 52.5%(efg). That is a figure well with in the expectation of the previous year's players' performances. Nothing artificial for that period that would lead to a crash, if and only if three of the most efficient shooters did not go down at the same time. They did and the shooting since Redd's injury has been 46.2%. With the return of those three and a bit of time to allow them to get back their timing and the team offense cohesiveness that was harmed by simultaneous injuries to three of the major efficient scores, one not swallowing whole some cliched analogy would be hopeful for a return of an offense that could create sufficient net points for wins, even with an expectly poor defense. But then again why think when a cliche is available.

Oh by the way, "(By the way, does anyone know much the journeyman stiff Jason Capono had to fork over to the Bucks for making him look like Jerry West?)." For someone who uses stats in his arguments I'm surprised it missed your attention that Jason Kapon came into last night's game as the best shooting SF with over 1000 minutes. He was getting from the field 1.24 pts per field goal attempted. How you reduce him to a stiff whom the Bucks allowed to score efficiently is very sloppy.